Swimming: Baker adds gold to the world record

For England's Zoë Baker, it was her finest hour as she stepped up to receive the first major gold medal of her career to clinch the Commonwealth title here in Manchester last night.

Baker's winning time of 30.60sec was just 0.03 shy of the world record she set in the semi-finals on Tuesday, but gold was all that mattered to the 26-year-old who was at last favoured by the fortune she has so long been denied.

"It was all about gold tonight," said Baker, who won by a deficit of over a second. "It was my aim to do the world record in the semi-finals to take the pressure off a little, and the pressure out there tonight was huge." Baker's career so far has been a turbulent one.

Specialisation in the 50m breaststroke, a non-Olympic event, has previously seen her snubbed by national team selectors and denied national lottery funding.

She broke, then lost, the short course world record three times in as many months earlier this year and her dreams of winning the world title were shattered back in April when a venomous spider bit into her leg just days before the World Short Course Championships in Moscow. The biggest setback for Baker is that she will have to wait until 2008 at the earliest before she is granted the opportunity to win an Olympic medal.

"Things haven't always worked out the way I'd have wanted," she said. "I think the 50m breaststroke should be in the Olympics. It's in the Europeans, the Worlds, the Commonwealths, but not the Olympics – why not?"

Sarah Price's days of disappointment look to be a thing of the past as she cruised to another Commonwealth record in the semi-finals of the women's 100m backstroke. She set the record in yesterday's heats, and buoyed by a rapturous home crowd last night she lowered it to 1.01.14sec to place her in pole position for tonight's final, where she looks set to win her first major championship title.

But there is no talent at these Games more colossal than Ian Thorpe, who breezed calmly to another gold medal here last night in the 200m freestyle final – the third of seven he hopes to take home to match the feat of his hero Mark Spitz at the 1972 Olympics.

The Manchester pool once again bestowed its favours upon the black-suited teenager from Sydney, who languorously stroked to a new Games record of 1.44.71sec. "I'm a little disappointed with the time. I swam it well, but I just wasn't feeling 100 per cent, not health wise. I just wasn't with it as much as I was last night, maybe I haven't recovered as well as I should have," said Thorpe, who has gained an extra 12 pounds in bodyweight, the mass of which he believes creates a bigger wave to catch to propel him through the water.

"I'm undergoing a lot of changes at the moment. You always need to make little adjustments to keep swimming fast. I've been sprinting well, lifting heavier weights – I'm even doing boxing. I'm confident in what I'm doing in preparation," he said.

Last night's gold was another to add to Thorpe's 17 Olympic, World, and Commonwealth crowns but few yawn at his predictability, except perhaps team-mate Grant Hackett, left to pick up the silver medal like on so many other occasions.

"I would really love to win against Thorpey," said a frustrated Hackett, the world record holder in the 1500m freestyle, an event he has made his own. "It sucks that in some events I swim times that nobody else in the world can do but I'm always second."

Australia stamped their authority on the opening sprint events, with Petria Thomas taking the women's' 50m butterfly title ahead of team-mate Nicole Irving, with Canadian-based Alison Sheppard taking the bronze to secure Scotland's first medal in the pool. Australia's Matt Welsh held off the challenge of Malaysia's Alex Lim to take the 50m backstroke gold in 25.65sec.